ZAMBOANGA City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar asked the National Government through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to address the issue on the firearms which were earlier issued to but later surrendered by the village officials due to the new policy of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Salazar said the present policy of the PNP is for every village watchman or barangay intelligence network (BIN) member to apply for a license to carry a firearm, not anymore through the usual issuance of a memorandum receipt (MR).
She said Camp Crame personnel are scheduled to come to Zamboanga City for a caravan on firearms licensing.
“If you are to help the President in our campaign against terrorism, what mechanism should the national government and the DILG give to the barangays to arm them, the tanod and BINs?” Salazar asked.
This, she said, is a question “we would like the DILG to address because the city government in the past had bought and issued (MR) firearms to the barangays, but these were surrendered on orders of Camp Crame and have never been returned until now.” (Bong Garcia/VoxPop Philippines)